Microsoft reveals Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2

With several days to spare before its self-imposed deadline, Microsoft Corp. today launched the second beta version of its upcoming Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) browser, but would not commit to a ship date for the final.

In early June, then-chairman Bill Gates promised that Microsoft would post Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Beta 2 before the end of August.

Today's preview includes several new features introduced since March's Beta 1 debut, but only two of them haven't been openly discussed already, said James Pratt, a senior product manager in the IE development team.

"About 80% of the time, when people are on the Web, they're browsing to sites they've visited before," said Pratt, pointing to what Microsoft has dubbed IE8's "smart address bar."

Much like the revamped location bar Mozilla added to Firefox 3.0 -- which it calls the "Awesome Bar" -- IE8's address field now can be used to search for previously-visited sites by typing in words or phrases.

Unlike Firefox's tools, however, IE8's doesn't rely on an integrated database to store and then retrieve those URLs. Instead, said Pratt, Microsoft relies on its Windows Desktop search application, which is bundled with Windows Vista but is a separate download and installation for Windows XP users.
Last month, Microsoft warned users it would soon begin pushing out an automatic update of Windows Desktop 4.0 to Vista users; people running XP, however, would see it only as an optional update.

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